Over the coming weeks I will talk you through how to fill out the spreadsheet so that you have a detailed and all-inclusive budget which will enable you to achieve all of your life goals and obtain a greater level of financial security than ever before. If your budget changes in any way the formulas have been designed to account for this and do all the working out for you.

Firstly you will need to download the spreadsheet by clicking on the button below…

Remember, the aim of this series is not merely to budget, but to budget in such a way that it allows us to achieve our life goals, so, even though you might dread listing your current expenses – it will be worth it, I promise.

Monthly Expenses and Savings Sheet

As you can see the first tab relates to monthly expenses and savings and is designed so that all potential expenses are accounted for. First of all enter in your monthly salary after tax in cell 3C.

Feel free to add or change expense categories to tailor this sheet to your unique expenditure.

However if you do add rows for more expense categories remember to enter in the following formula as listed in ‘The Technical Bit’ so that it adds things up correctly:

The Technical Bit…

Click on the ‘Actual’ and ‘Total Monthly Expenses’ cell and enter in:

=SUM(

Now click on the first ‘Actual’ column monthly expense figure and drag down to select all of your monthly expense figures in that column. For example:

=SUM(B7:B38)

Now press enter, ensuring that the figure is in a currency format. To select a currency format click on the ‘Actual’ and ‘Total Monthly Expenses’ cell and then press the coins sign on the number tab at the top of the screen – then simply select your relevant currency.

Now look over your last months expenses from your bank account and enter in the amount you spend on each item currently in the ‘Actual’ column, entering £0.00 for items you do not spend in. The spreadsheet should then calculate how much money you have in savings after all expenses in the ‘Actual’ and ‘Total Monthly Savings’ cell, doing all the hard work for you.

Don’t be too worried if you are not saving anything as few people are and in the coming week’s we’ll be taking a look at which expenses we can reduce our spending in, freeing money to pay off debts and save towards goals.

Did taking a close look at what you spend every month surprise you? Are you able to save anything each month if your current expenses remain the same? What expenses do you think you could cut back on realistically? Please share your thoughts in the comments below to gain encouragement, insight and support from our community, we’d love to hear from you.

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2 Comments

I think I will be able to save something each month as the spreadsheet has provided clarity on my outgoings and I should now be able to trim back on some of my flexible spending, particularly entertainment. This is a really wonderful budgeting tool.